The present invention generally relates to a motor-driven food processor for household use for processing, or more specifically, chopping, mixing, blending, shredding, slicing, grinding or grating, food material by using different types of removable rotary treating elements and, more particularly, to an improvement in a removable receptacle which is employed in combination with the food processor.
The food processor to which the present invention is directed is of a well known and currently commercially available type. Except for food processors of the type which are capable of only peeling vegetables like potatoes and are like the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,848,524, the food processor for processing, for example, chopping, mixing, blending, shredding, slicing, grinding, grating or peeling food material, and to which the present invention is directed, is generally comprised of a power unit including an electric motor and a drive shaft, a receptacle including a container and a lid, and a rotary treating element rotatable within the receptacle by the drive shaft at a high speed, all of which are separable and removable from each other.
For particular uses, there are many types of rotary treating element currently available such as, for example, cutting disc, shredding disc, slicing disc, grating disc, mixing blade and peeling disc. A particular type of rotary treating element is not always limited in its use and, for example, the cutting disc may be used not only for chopping or grinding food material, but also for grating, shredding or slicing and the mixing blade may be used not only for mixing, but also for smashing or blending.
The present invention is specifically directed to an improvement in the removable receptacle which is used in combination with the food processor and, more particularly, to a food holder which is adapted to be removably mounted on a feed chute, which is formed on the lid of the receptacle, for preventing the food material being processed from undesirably tilting sideways in the feed chute.
The Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 40-24699, published on Aug. 21, 1965, discloses the food processor wherein the feed chute includes means for preventing the food material being processed from undesirably tilting sideways in the feed chute. The tilt preventing means disclosed therein comprised of a pair of substantially rectangular elastic retainers each having a plurality of elongated elastic tines which are connected together at one end, by means of a transversely extending strip, and have a substantially comb-like shape. The tines of each of the elastic retainers are bent so that, when the retainers are installed inside the feed chute with the respective strips secured to or embedded in a wall so that they define the feed chute by being in spaced opposed relation, the bent areas of the tines of one elastic retainer protrude outwards towards the bent areas of the tines of the other elastic retainer with the passage in the feed chute consequently being adjustably constricted.
In this arrangement which is disclosed in the Utility Model Publication No. 40-24699, the tilt preventing means, that is, the elastic retainers, is not removable relative to the feed chute.
An improved version wherein the tilt preventing means comprises only the elastic retainer which is similar in construction to that described above, but which has a clip element formed in the strip for joining the tines together so that the elastic retainer can removably be mounted on an inlet open end of the feed chute with the tines protruding into the inside of the feed chute, is disclosed in the Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 40-28225, published on Sept. 28, 1965. Except for the provision of the clip element, the retainer disclosed in the second described publication differs from that disclosed in the first described publication in that the tines are curved like a bow in contrast to the bent areas of the tines of the first described publication.
None of these publications specifically describe a requirement about the lengths of the elastic tines, but the drawings attached thereto suggest that they are of equal length and equally bent or curved in the same direction.
The tilt preventing means disclosed in any one of the above mentioned publications appear to be satisfactory, but it is ineffective to holding the food material relatively firmly in position within the feed chute and as such is required to be improved.